Does anyone know about powerflushing radiators??

[AmericanPastoral]

We've been told we need to have a powerflush of our radiators. We've used a young guy just to connect a gas cooker and he says he offers a thorough service using top of the range equipment from leading manufacturer - Kamco, who have trained him inhouse as part of the purchase package of their equipment.Has anyone heard of Kamco? I'm trying to find out how much experience he has of doing a power flush for clients or if his experience is limited to inhouse training. If it is limited to the latter do you think that matters? Thanks very much.

What benefits does he say it will give? How old is your system? Do you have sludge in it ?(radiator cold at bottom) how big are your pipes?

How much is his quote?

Thanks for your reply special. Apparently the system is overheating and they're thinking there is a blockage somewhere. I don't know if there is sludge in it - will check. I don't know how big the pipes were. What pipes do you mean? His quote is £300 plus cost of chemicals- around £30.

Thanks again.

I mean the size of the pipes in the system - we have one with 8mm pipes in part and despite what various people have tried to sell us, the laws of physics mean that a powerflush won't work.

You might want to sound the PigletJohn klaxon, but a powerflush to find a blockage 'somewhere' doesn't strike me as targeted faultfinding...

Thanks again - how would I find out what the size of the pipes are?

Thanks for the reminder - I will definitely sound the PigletJohn klaxon - he has already been very helpful in many other areas

IF you do need a powerflush the price sounds about right, we paid £300 last month when we had it done as part of a new boiler installation.

It's a good earner for plumbers and heating engineers. Sometimes it is necessary

What made the person come to the conclusion that you needed to spend an extra £300?

How old are the radiators and the boiler? Does the boiler have a pressure gauge on the front?

p.s.

Pipe sizes

Look at the ends of the radiators. There will be a valve on both ends, usually at the bottom. The pipe will either be the size of your finger (15mm) or the size of a pencil (8mm). Sometimes there is only a valve at one end.

Are the radiators cold at the bottom, or in the middle, or at the top?

We live in a tall narrow London townhouse. Sludge seeps to the bottom and the radiators in the basement don't heat up so we need a power flush every so often. It is an old system so I suspect there is internal rust which makes the problem worse.

However because of the height of the building we have had to call a commercial power flusher in. (And are grateful to the first plumber who admitted his equipment was not strong enough.) The second plumber claimed to do it, but had a machine pumping for hours at an hourly rate, but still could not clear anything, in part because he was not systematic, had his machine in the wrong place and somehow failed to cover the bit near the boiler that was blocked.

Back to our commercial guys who brought their big machine in, cleaned each radiator one by one and completed the job quickly.

One tip is to run your central heating every couple of months or so during the summer for an hour or so to keep things moving.

Thanks very much Sunny, Piglet and Needmore. Will investigate further.